Reading Poker Tells

Poker Strategy & Reading Poker Tells is a subject we could discuss all day. It’s very complex and requires a fair amount of detailed writing in order to offer any meaningful insight. That said, we will break Reading Poker Tells up into sessions, and build on those from week to week. As we present each segment, you should start working on identifying that particular tell in your opponents. No single player is likely to manifest all tells. You have to observe each player for a particular tell, then move to the next one, and so on.

May I also suggest getting Reading Poker Tells by Zachary Elwood. I believe him to be the utmost authority as it regards tells. Over the years, I have read his books at least 10 times each. He also has a Video Training Site. Find it here. I am a subscriber to this course as well. It’s by far the best I have seen. He also has a YouTube channel.

What is a Poker Tell?

According to Wikipedia: “A tell in poker is a change in a player’s behavior or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player’s assessment of their hand.” I’m not so certain that “change in behavior” is always the case. Often it’s a slight movement of the hand or a shrug of the shoulders that can give us an indication of a player’s intention.

As an example, a UTG+1 player makes a slight movement for his chips as soon as the flop is out, not thinking there are players in front of him, yet to act. But, he almost instantly realizes what he did, and now remains stoic, impatiently waiting his turn to act. Not exactly what I would call a change in behavior, as much as it was letting down his guard in the excitement of hitting his hand. But maybe it’s just semantics.

When reading Poker Tells remember that they can be physical or verbal. The more experienced players know better than to talk, yet some still do it. Newer and recreational players will talk far more, not realizing what they are doing, or perhaps not caring. Here’s an example of a verbal tell. The Flop comes AAK. A player whistles and makes a comment about the Flop. It’s unlikely that he connected with the Flop at all. Why? Because if he had, he would have stayed quiet. He would not want to have brought any attention to the Flop or himself. Make sense?

Learning Poker Tells

Poker strategy, as it relates to Reading Poker Tells is one area that I study the most, and it has been the most difficult of all the poker strategy skills for me to learn. I believe part of it is because different people manifest different tells. There are tells that apply to us all, which I will refer to as “universal” tells. These universal tells are more pronounced in some players than others. A well-experienced player will most likely rarely give off a tell, but even these players sometimes let their guard down.

Another aspect of reading poker tells that makes it difficult is that a tell, which appears exactly the same, can have different meanings. How is that possible? It’s possible because everything in poker is situational, including tells.

Hiding Your Tells

Before we get involved in discussing other players’ tells, let’s talk about the importance of controlling our own tells. If you choose not to expend the energy and time it takes to look for tells, then at the minimum you need to recognize and conceal your own tells. Here are a few tips that hopefully will help with that.

Keep your emotions balanced. This is absolutely more difficult for you to do than for me to say. I will not say that I have never exploded due to taking a bad beat. I have. But, I can say that I have learned to conceal it now. I may well be fuming on the inside, but no one will ever know it. I will not go on tilt, I will play the next hand as well as I would have had the bad beat not happened.

Remain Calm. Always remain calm. Poker is a game of making good decisions with incomplete information. It’s difficult enough to do that, while calm. It’s a near-impossible task if we allow ourselves to become upset during the session. Take deep breaths, or walk away from the table for a few minutes. Do what works for you, but don’t show any emotion to other players.

Don’t Make Excuses. Poker players, in general, love to tell their bad-beat stories. They say, I had pocket Aces and got called with Q3. He frickin flops two pair. That’s going to happen,in fact, I suspect you have been on both sides of that. I know I have. Instead, be happy for a bad beat. You got your money in good, the other player made a mathematical mistake. Just hope he keeps doing it.

Stay Focused. There are lots of distractions in the Poker Room. Televisions playing sports 24/7. Your cell phone, side conversations, headphones, and sometimes boredom. Don’t fall into the distraction trap. Keep your phone in your pocket, and avoid the TVs and other events surrounding you. Pay attention to the game, whether you are in the hand or not. When you don’t have cards is a perfect time to observe your opponents.

Discipline. One trait that separates good players from bad players is discipline. I have seen players do things I would never dream of doing. Discipline means no “gamble, gamble” Don’t start playing weak hands just because you have been losing with your strong hands. Don’t tilt.

Concealing your tells is of paramount importance. Controlling your emotions, staying focused, maintaining discipline and remaining calm will give you an edge over the players that don’t adhere to these traits.

In our next session on Poker Strategy & Poker Tells, we will begin looking at specific tells. These will be broken down into categories, as poker is situational. Earlier I said that there are tells that will “look” exactly the same, yet have different meanings. This is the purpose of the categories, because a Tell exhibited during a player’s action may look exactly like a Tell for post-action, yet have a completely different meaning.

Check back in soon for Tells, Part 2.